How do I run NetBeans from the terminal?

I have installed a JDK + NetBeans bundle from the downloaded .sh file.

Now I have the NetBeans shortcut on my desktop but I can't run NetBeans from the terminal.

When I run:

sudo dpkg --get-selections

NetBeans is not on the list and also I can't find it in the Ubuntu Software Center.

• How do I run it from the terminal and how do I find it in the system?

• When I installed Emacs using apt-get it appeared in the main menu and I could launch it from the terminal straight away. How do these two installations differ?

4 Answers

Assuming you downloaded the 7.4 version

If you installed netbeans from .sh installer using sudo then the default command to run netbeans is :

/bin/sh "/usr/local/netbeans-7.4/bin/netbeans"

if you installed netbeans without sudo then the default command is :

~/netbeans-7.4/bin/netbeans

dpkg is a debian package manager, since you have installed Nebeans by a (presumably local) script, it will not be listed in dpkg -l.

Retrieve an application's command from it's desktop file:

When you have an application installed of which you don't know the command, but you do have a desktop file, you can read it from the desktop file's content. The link you have on your desktop is a desktop file. Look for a line, starting with "Exec=". What comes after that string is the command you are looking for.

Make the application available in Dash:

Normally, applications install a desktop file in /usr/share/applications (like emacs does). If a desktop file is located in either that location or in ~/.local/share/applications, it appears in Dash automatically, so if you copy the desktop file into ~/.local/share/applications, it will appear in Dash after next log in.

Open an application by (only) it's binary file name (or not):

Netbeans did not open on the command netbeans because the shell does not know the path to your binary file. If binary files are located in /usr/bin (the default path to application's binary files) they will open right away, without the path-prefix. That is the case for example with emacs.

If an application does not install its binary file in /usr/bin, there are three possibilities; either the application's desktop file's execute line includes the path to the file, as you can see for example in the execute line of the file-explorer indicator's desktop file: /opt/indicator-file-explorer/bin/indicator-file-explorer, or the path to the binary file is added to $PATH (/etc/environment), so the shell will search for binary files in that directory too, or the application installs a link to the binary file in /usr/bin. All three options do occur, no matter the way an application is installed.

If you installed your application locally, it would be a bad idea to (try to-) create a link to the application's binary file from a global directory, such as /usr/bin; other users would be stuck with a dead link, because they have no valid permissions in your home directory. Therefore, the easyest way is to create a local bin directory (~/bin) and create a link to the local binary file from that directory (ln -sf). That way you can run your locally installed Netbeans by the single command netbeans.

Don't know if this might help but what works for me is assuming you are the the current home directory of your user

./netbeans-8.0.2/bin/netbeans

I installed netbeans by downloading the sh installer from their website. Just curious on how to run netbeans via terminal and this worked for me.

in Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon use sh netbeans

for example ~/netbeans-8.2/bin$ sh netbeans